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Independent Filmmakers Respond to Katrina

Published on October 21, 2005

Hurricane Katrina was a category four storm that swept across the Central Gulf Coast. The official death toll now stands at 1,242 and the damage cost higher than $200 billion, topping Hurricane Andrew as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Katrina has created a humanitarian crisis on a scale unseen in the U.S. since the Great Depression.

Jared Arsement's Citizen Rescue offers a first-hand look at Katrina's aftermath and efforts by locals to begin rebuilding their community.

As commercial media outlets reported on Katrina and its aftermath, controversy swirled around the biased depiction of African Americans as "looters" as opposed to white "finders." While reporting by CNN, FOX and other mainstream media outlets was arguably biased, the coverage did expose many Americans for the first time to the daily struggles of disenfranchised poor communities, whose plights were only exacerbated in this time of crisis. Which only underscores the question, why hadn't we seen these faces before, and why don't we see these people every night on broadcast television? Can we trust consolidated media to accurately and fairly represent folks without money or power? As the lengthy recovery and rebuilding process begins, to whom can we turn for in-depth, critical reporting?

Now more than ever, the public needs access to views coming not from corporate entities but from independent mediamakers who are in a position to investigate stories that the mainstream media overlooks. Thanks to affordable sound and camera equipment, it is easier than ever for producers to create their own media and the public is hungry for it.

Many people, young and old are creating media about the events surrounding Hurricane Katrina. The aftermath is complicated, with many issues from socio-economic justice to environmental protection and many more to consider. Filmmakers all over the world are exploring these issues. Here are just a few projects underway.

New Orleans Filmmakers Tell Their Own Stories

Jared Arsement of Lafayette, Louisiana took his camera along as he joined a citizen rescue fleet that plied the sodden streets of New Orleans. Jared speaks directly into the camera as he looks around the flooded streets that surround him. He realizes that both his hometown and his life will never be the same.

Tim Ryan and other filmmakers from the New Orleans Video Access Center are working on a long-form documentary about the ongoing struggles of New Orleans residents.

Jared sent his raw footage to producers at Al Gore's new, independent cable and satellite TV network, Current TV. They edited the material into the piece, Citizen Rescue that aired on their network and now streams online. Seeing someone from New Orleans telling their own story in their own way has a lot of power. Because Current TV's content is 30% viewer-produced and created, Jared was able to make a short piece and have it broadcast almost immediately.

Tim Ryan, Executive Director of the New Orleans Video Access Center, and his wife Heather, lost their home and the lives of a number of their friends due to the hurricane. They are currently living in Baton Rouge and, like many other citizens in New Orleans, they are unsure when they will return to their hometown.

Currently they are shooting a long-form documentary about the day-to-day challenges of individuals living through the reconstruction of New Orleans, from standing in line for food stamps to cleaning up what's left of their houses to finding new careers for themselves. "We're not looking at this project as investigative journalists trying to uncover something sensational. We simply want to capture real life experiences as the people of New Orleans attempt to recover from the devastation and rebuild their lives and an amazing city."

Tim and Heather are working with a community of local filmmakers on this project, interviewing people on a wide range of subjects. They have a unique perspective having lived through the hurricane side-by-side with the people, businesses and organizations that are the subjects of their film. Tim hopes "to be able to capture all kinds of stories that give a true, unbiased and well-rounded point-of-view."

Long-form documentary is a perfect format for evaluating the power and scope of a disaster like this one. New York-based filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev explains, "This is a nexus of all kinds of things -- mother nature, the environment, Iraq, class issues, race issues, corruption, infrastructure. I can't imagine how you can treat it correctly except in long form."

Filmmakers from Around the Country Pick Up Their Cameras

Indeed, many independent producers have been moved by the events surrounding Katrina, and they have come to New Orleans to make films. And as is often the case with verit� filmmaking, many of them have no sense of what kind of story they want to tell -- they just want to be where the stories are happening and hope that a narrative emerges.

Amir Bar-Lev teamed up with Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 to document the experiences of Louisiana National Guard Soldiers returning from Iraq to find their hometowns devastated.

Amir Bar-Lev was about to begin post-production on his feature-length doc Marla when Katrina hit. He had spent some time in New Orleans in the past, working on a Weather Channel piece about the possibility of a hurricane in New Orleans. It never aired. Wanting to get involved, he sent an email to several New York-based filmmakers inviting them to go down to New Orleans with him to make a film. A few days later, he joined forces with Tia Lessin and Carl Deal, producers of Fahrenheit 9/11 to follow the story of Louisiana National Guard Soldiers returning from Iraq whose families were directly impacted by the hurricane.

"75% of the job is putting yourself there. The challenge was almost too many stories," Bar-Lev explains. After a week in New Orleans, he and his filmmaking partners met a family from the 9th Ward, among the people the National Guard was too late to help during the disaster. "The networks aired around-the-clock coverage of the hurricane. But our film will tell a story of Katrina you would never see on TV," insists Lessin. "The story that is emerging is one we never could have predicted."

The experience of making this film and being a part of the national response to Katrina has had a profound effect on Bar-Lev. "I am commiting myself to a working philosophy of spending a certain amount of time and resources every year into simply throwing myself into situations where I might find a film."

Jonathan Stack is another filmmaker responding to Hurricane Katrina. Stack has extensive experience working in Louisiana because of the many years he spent working on his Academy Award-nominated film The Farm: Angola. He is developing two long-form docs: one is about the Louisiana prison system and Angola's involvement in transporting New Orleans prisoners to various prisons throughout the South, and the second project is a composite story focused on how different individuals are coping with this crisis.

Jonathan Stack, Director of The Farm: Angola, is examining the hurricane's effect on individuals in Louisiana's criminal justice system.

Stack, like Amir, does not currently have a broadcaster attached to his projects. In the meantime, it's important to him to tell a story "that is about the bigger picture and not about the immediate issues of crisis -- a story about America and what we put back into that city will reveal a lot about who we are."

What About Your Film?

These are just a few of the many projects in the works. New films are being announced every day; Variety reports that Spike Lee will be making a documentary for HBO, and there has also been talk of a Michael Moore documentary in planning. The list goes on and on.

This does not mean that there is not room for other films about Katrina and its aftermath. Some people are undertaking feature length documentaries or shorts; others are streaming raw footage online. The hurricane and the process of rebuilding is a huge event and there is room for many stories. The more independent media around this disaster and its aftermath, the more informed our dialogue around it will be.

We encourage you to tell your own stories and to seek out narratives from your community. As always, you can post your completed film or work-in-progress to the MediaRights site. Be sure to include key words like "Katrina" in your synopsis so that users searching for films on the topic while find your work. We are also seeking submissions for the sixth annual Media That Matters Film Festival and we feel strongly about including a short related to Katrina in the line-up. We look forward to reviewing your submissions!